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If you believe you can throw your curve for a strike in a 3-2 count with the bases loaded, you very well may do so.

Now, granted, you're not going anywhere if you can't hit the outside corner, if your fastball doesn't have movement and if you don't have a good out pitch or two.

But you definitely have no chance for success if you don't think you can do the job.

Just ask Rochester Red Wings left-hander Pat Dean. A year ago, he says his confidence was pretty shot. Why, he's not sure.

"Mostly every outing was a struggle," he said of his fifth year in the Minnesota Twins system. "If guys got on base, they were going to score. I just had no confidence that I could make a pitch."

Yeah, that's a problem. If Dean didn't believe he could make the pitches to end threats or induce double plays, then it wasn't just magically going to happen.

So after posting a 3-2 record and 2.03 earned-run average in 2013 with the Wings in a late-season call-up, he spent all of 2014 in Double A. He had an 8-9 record and inflated 4.81 ERA. Opponents hit .320 against him.

Pat Dean(Photo: Provided photo)

He has rebounded very nicely, however. While he was the very hard-luck losing pitcher on Friday night — Lehigh Valley scored a run in the fourth inning and defeated the Wings 1-0 at Frontier Field — he has been quite effective. His record is just 6-8 but his 3.22 ERA ranks in the top 12 in the International League.

And getting better, thanks to an ever-improving change-up, though it's still a work in progress, according to Wings manager Mike Quade.

"To go to the next level, he's going to need it," Quade said. "It can result in a lot of outs early in the count; bad swings early in the count. That helps the pitch count.

"It's coming. It's OK but it needs to be better than OK."

Most importantly, Dean believes in it. He figures he threw it on about 10 percent of his 109 pitches.

"Today I was very happy with it," said the 26-year-old Connecticut native, a third-round pick of the Twins in 2010. "I want to be able to have that confidence to throw it when I'm behind, ahead. I definitely threw it a lot more tonight that I have been."

The one pitch he didn't like: the fastball he threw to Jordan Danks in the fourth inning. With runners on first and second, the IronPigs right fielder hit a ground ball that just skimmed off the glove of shortstop Argenis Diaz. Aaron Altherr scored from second.

"I feel if I could have taken back one pitch, we'd still be playing right now," Dean said. "It was a fastball away. I was thinking something else and didn't throw it with as much conviction."

Still, when your starting pitcher goes eight innings, allows just one run and one walk while striking out seven, he's not supposed to lose.

"He needs a good lawyer to sue for lack of support," said Quade, whose club remains in first place in the North Division with a 50-43 record.